Corals are plale/bleached

[D. Torres]

Hello everyone I'm fairly new to the saltwater hobby. I have a 75 gallon tank which currently only has 2 tiny clow fish (about 1.25 inches) and a snowflake eel(also small maybe like 6 to 7 inches). I have a few small frags that I purchased about 1.5 months ago. They seem to be getting pale. I can see new polyps growing on all of them but they are loosing color. I have a galaxea, hammer, zoas, and GSP. My current light set up is two 48" LED IC Pro lights. I test my water weekly and these are my current reading that have been stable for a while now:
75 Gallon
03/22 Thursday 12:10
Temperature: 81 °F
pH: 8
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm
Phosphate: .25 ppm
Salinity: 1.024 SG
Alkalinity: 9 dKH
Calcium: 440 ppm

I recently started feeding phyto feast about 4 days ago. Will that help? Is there something else that I should be testing? Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[hatfielj]

What kind of flow do you have going through this tank? Lack of flow can be a big problem. Also, your Nitrates and Phosphates are a little on the high side, especially that phosphate level. If I had to bet, I would bet that your phosphates are to blame. Try to get those down below 0.05 ppm. I would consider adding a GAC/Phos-Ban reactor and see if you can get that down. Also, are you doing regular water changes?

 

[D. Torres]

What kind of flow do you have going through this tank? Lack of flow can be a big problem. Also, your Nitrates and Phosphates are a little on the high side, especially that phosphate level. If I had to bet, I would bet that your phosphates are to blame. Try to get those down below 0.05 ppm. I would consider adding a GAC/Phos-Ban reactor and see if you can get that down. Also, are you doing regular water changes?

Yes I do regular water changes. Every 2 weeks and I use RO/DI water from my LFS and use Reef Crystals to make my water. I have two 1300 GPH powerheads plus my FX6 which does about 900 GPH.

 

[bronsond99]

All of the bleached and paleness is prob due to the lighting. How long do you have your lights on for? I️ would try moving the corals a little further away from the lighting and run your lights for 6 hours daily to help them get their colors back. I️ only thing that I️ dose my tank with is PurpleUp and it works wonders. I️ also feed with ReefRoids and brine shrimp. Feed brine shrimp daily and Roids 2x a week. I️ would do 10% water changes weekly for a month as well. So just try and move your corals further from lighting, run lights for less time, and try and try the 10% water changes weekly. Hopes this helps!!

 

[D. Torres]

All of the bleached and paleness is prob due to the lighting. How long do you have your lights on for? I️ would try moving the corals a little further away from the lighting and run your lights for 6 hours daily to help them get their colors back. I️ only thing that I️ dose my tank with is PurpleUp and it works wonders. I️ also feed with ReefRoids and brine shrimp. Feed brine shrimp daily and Roids 2x a week. I️ would do 10% water changes weekly for a month as well. So just try and move your corals further from lighting, run lights for less time, and try and try the 10% water changes weekly. Hopes this helps!!

I run my lights from 9am to 9pm. The exact light schedule is 0900 on to 0915 ramp up 0915 to 1015 (sunrise lighting) 1015 to 1030 ramp up to Daylight setting, 1030 to 1930, 1930 to 1945 ramp down to sunset lighting, 1945 to 2045 sunset lighting, 2045 to 2100 ramp down to moonlight. Moonlight runs for 6 hours (can' adjust this). Should I shorten my on off time or just lower my light intensity?

 

[bronsond99]

Yeah, I️ wouldn’t run your lights for 12 hours a day. Try to shorten your light time and lower the intensity some. Or just move the corals further from the lightning and run the lights for 8 hours a day

 

[bronsond99]

So maybe turn your lights on at 11am till 7pm and then moonlights for 6 hours. And as well, lower the light intensity.

 

[D. Torres]

Yeah, I️ wouldn’t run your lights for 12 hours a day. Try to shorten your light time and lower the intensity some. Or just move the corals further from the lightning and run the lights for 8 hours a day

This is what it says from the Orbit website
LED'S:
Dual Actinic: 445nm/460nm LEDs: 48/48
Dual Daylight: 6,700K/ 10,000K LEDs: 36/36
RGB LEDs: 24
Total LEDs: 192

Should I do less white light light? I'm able to adjust Red Green Blue and White lighting

 

[bronsond99]

Hmmm... prob the white light. If you just lowered the light intensity overall. Try pointing your wave makers up towards the surface of water to create waves and break up some of the light waves, so the light waves are not as direct, since there will be water waves above them. Also, the bleaching and discoloration could be from high temps in the tank. Keep temps around 74-76 degrees F

 

[brawthy]

I don't think you nitrates are a huge problem-LPS and softies actually prefer elevated levels (at depth nitrates are higher than the surface).

Your phosphates however might be an issue. I would recommend slowly adding gfo or introducing chemipure blue slowly to your system. Also, move your corals down a bit and reduce flow (in the case you can't manually adjust your light).

 

[D. Torres]

@bronsond99 I will shorten the light cycle for now. I run my white light at only 50% as it is. And lower my heater gradually to get down to 78 degrees.

@brawthy I'll look into adding the chemipure. I haven't had any chemical filtration at all. Just biological and mechanical.

Thanks for the info guys. If anyone else has any more advice to offer keep posting. I'm still learning.

 

[brawthy]

introduce slowly, don't shock your system .

I would run for a few hours the first few days then throw it in

 

[bronsond99]

@bronsond99 I will shorten the light cycle for now. I run my white light at only 50% as it is. And lower my heater gradually to get down to 78 degrees.

@brawthy I'll look into adding the chemipure. I haven't had any chemical filtration at all. Just biological and mechanical.

Thanks for the info guys. If anyone else has any more advice to offer keep posting. I'm still learning.

You’re welcome. And yeah lower the temp if it is above 78. Also don’t number chase if that makes since. Just text for ammonia, PH, nitrate, and nitrite, if those numbers are good: high PH, low ammonia, low nitrate and zero nitrite, then your other numbers will fall into place naturally just like they would in the ocean.

 

[D. Torres]

introduce slowly, don't shock your system .

I would run for a few hours the first few days then throw it in

I only have a canister filter. I would have to open it up to add and remove it. Kind of a pain but if there's no other way around it. How many days is a few and how many hours is a few? Do you think I could start off with just 1/2 unit for a week to avoid adding and removing it from my canister filter. A half unit is supposed to treat only 20 gallons of water. According to their website.